So far we have learned about:
- Golf equipment
- The grip
- Golf stance
- Golf swing
- Golf ball position
- Driver tips
- Short game strategy
- And putting
It’s now time to take everything we have learned and bring them together out on the golf course!
Using the Scorecard to your Advantage
Grabbing a scorecard from the pro shop gives you a lot of very useful information that you can use to play better golf!
The scorecard allows you to:
- Figure out which golf tees to play from looking at the yardages
- See a map of each hole and locate any hazards
- Know what the par of each hole is
- Understand any local rules or information that can improve your round
I wrote a full article on the benefits of the scorecard you can look at here
Yardages
It is crucial to know how far away you are from the flag stick so you can decide which club to hit! Use one of these two methods to figure out your yardage to the hole.
- Most courses have different colored stakes or circles that tell you how far you are to the center of the green. Red means 100 yards. White means 150 yards. Blue means 200 yards to the center. In order to find your exact distance, locate one of these markers and count your steps to the golf ball. Each step is roughly 1 yard.
- For golfers that play more frequently, it is beneficial to use a rangefinder to know your exact yardage to the hole. Knowing this information helps you dial in your distances better with each golf club.
Aiming for the Center
Often times, courses place the holes in difficult positions on the green to add difficulty.
So instead of always aiming right at the flag every time, just aim for the larger part of the green. The center!
This strategy improves the chances of you landing on the green and will help lower scores It is far better to be on the green putting than miss the green entirely going for the flagstick.
Playing Smart
When playing golf, it is easy to become frustrated and impatient when things don’t go as planned.
Here’s an example: Your drive goes a little right off of the tee box and goes into some trees.
Frustrated, you try and hit through the trees to get back into a better position but the golf ball hits a small branch and comes right back at you!
I see this too often where golfers don’t take enough time to plan out there shots strategically and hit shots that they have not learned yet.
We call these types of shots, “low percentage” shots because there is a large amount of risk associated with them.
So in the case of the example above, it would have been smarter to hit back out into the fairway rather than trying a heroic, Tiger Woods shots through the trees.
Take your medicine at times and play the higher percentage shot that gives you the best odds to save strokes. It doesn’t do you any good if you rush through your round!
Par 3 Strategy
For more information, you can read my full article on par 3’s here
Par 5 Strategy
For more information, you can read my full article on par 5’s here